高三英语培优·名著阅读之心灵鸡汤精选 Ballerina Dog（答案在最后）
班级：____________学号：____________姓名：____________
心灵鸡汤精选Ballerina Dog
德比尔
【文章梗概】四月的下午，在残疾小女孩痛失爱犬后，父母要送她一只新的小狗作为生日礼物。起初她极不愿意，后来在父母的坚持下，还是去了动物收容所。到了那后，小女孩被两只小狗吸引住了。工作人员建议她收养那只健壮的公狗，因为另外那只母狗患有残疾，护理她会麻烦许多。但是最后那只母狗靠着自己的毅力，蹒跚地走到了小女孩身边，打动了这个小女孩。小女孩最终还是领养了这只母狗。
One April afternoon a few days after my twenty-first birthday, my parents announced that they were ready to give me—their live-at-home, frazzled, college-student daughter—a belated birthday prent.
Wheelchair-bound since birth, I propelled mylf from my bedroom into the living room where my parents anxiously waited.
“Bring it on! Good things come to tho who wait,” I joked, as I clod my eyes and extended my hands waiting to feel the weight of a beautifully wrapped gift.
“Why are you holding out your hands?” my dad laughed. “Your gift isn’t coming in a box this year.”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes to study the 钢结构合同glee stamped on both of their usually calm faces. “I know! It must be that handicapped-accessiblechoke van I’ve been praying for!”
“No, it’s not a van, but it’s almost as good,” my mom chuckled. Then she said more riously, “Jackie, we know you were 习以为常的意思devastated when Buck pasd last year. We all were. He was a great dog. But we think our hou has been void of doggy joy long enough. It’s time to hear puppy nois again.”
“So today, right now, in fact,” my dad broke in, “we’re going to a place where you’ll be abl
e to lect the puppy of your choice.”
“But,” I stammered, but there was no time for protest as he scooped me out of my chair and into our car. My parents chatted to each other while I sat in the back, desperately trying to quell蝴蝶版 overwhelming waves of sadness.
Sadness becau not so long ago, this trip would have emed incomprehensible—a betrayal. After all, it had been only ven months since Buck lay on my cold bathroom floor drawing his last breaths. Seven months since I slid from my chair onto the floor, gently caressing his gray-streaked black-and-white fur, as his spirit pasd from this world to the next. Sobbing, I vowed to him and to mylf that I would never get another dog . . . but now here I was, about to break that promi.
Finally, my father turned to me and asked, “It’ll be nice to hear the pitter-patter of paws again, won’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said flatly, trying to conjure up the excitement he’d expected. But I couldn’t. Tear
s began to roll down my cheeks. I wiped them away quickly as my father, unaware of my tenuous emotional state, continued.
“When we get there, should we make a beeline to the shih tzu puppies? I know they’re your favorites.”
My favorite was Buck, I thought, not his breed. Buck, my constant companion, who climbed up on my lap and, like a salve, soothed my spastic, palsied muscles in a way that no drug ever could.
“Buck is irreplaceable!” I wanted to scream, but I held back, opting for something kinder. “Breeds don’t really matter. It’s their heart that counts. I’ll look at them all.” I paud, then continued as we pulled into the parking lot, “Who knows? I may not find any and walk out empty-handed.” I wanted to prepare my parents for this possibility.
“I doubt that,” Dad smiled at me, as he plopped me in my chair and headed toward the building, “but we’ll e.”
变量数列A chorus of barks and howls heralded our arrival, as a friendly employee offered to show us the available puppies. My parents accepted, but I lagged behind, gazing at the other dogs, shimmying and shaking, pleading to be relead from their four-walled prisons. I smiled, but held mylf in check, determined to keep my vow. Until . . .
生命健康Until I saw my father’s face shining like the noonday sun. “Over here,” he called to me.
Intrigued, my heart began to race, as I pushed toward the pen where my parents stood. Struggling to get a better look, I hoisted mylf up, my legs tightening with the effort. There, nestled in the pen, were two angelic shih tzus. The male, a fluffy caramel and white pup, was gregarious and charged right at me. His smaller sister, a beautiful midnight-black-and-white puppy, was more demure, waiting for me to lean in a bit, before licking my no. Aww, she looks like Buck, I said silently, my heart beginning to soften. Then suddenly, before I knew what was happening, my resolve toppled. I was hooked.
“Well, it looks like we won’t be going home empty-handed,” my mother said, as if voicing my thoughts.
“Wonderful.” My father was plead. “Which one?”
